Has Bubbly Bottomed Out?

Conflicting headlines! A new article from the Wall Street Journal — “Champagne’s Bubble Burst” — notes that champagne bottlers picked 32% fewer grapes this year and will produce 44% fewer bottles overall, due to expected cutbacks in consumer spending. FT Alphaville, by contrast, put a positive spin on the wine industry’s fortunes in a post this morning entitled “Wine Doing Fine.” After getting slammed in late 2008, the piece notes, the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index is up 10 percent year to date and jumped 5 percent in August alone. See the chart below.

Of course, these two facts are perfectly reconcilable. Indeed, the fact that some wine/champagne producers are scaling back production might have something to do with their stock bounce. Still, I found it interesting that the FT put a positive gloss on things while the Journal did precisely the opposite.

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the author | mckinsey consultant based in london | former speechwriter for queen rania of jordan | former economics writer at council on foreign relations | winner of 2009 emmy award | see full profile at LeeHudsonTeslik.com